While I could see how many players might like this amp, I do not.
Pros - It is designed for a tech oriented player.
Cons - It is much too complicated to just set up and play.

There are many excellent pre-se voicings.

It has a very poor clean sound and no character.

There is plenty of power and volume.

It does not adapt well to a loop station.
It does what it is supposed to do.
It does not do what I want it to without a great deal
attention preparing it.

There are many good reasons to buy this amp.

Those players that do not have their own stomp pedals are gifted many sounds built right into the amp and it has plenty of power. It seems though that one would spend as much time learning to play the amp as one would learning to play the guitar. If you are the type, like myself, that want to walk on set and get busy immediately then this is not your amp.

It would really not be a good choice for the jazz player or any other style requiring good clean sound. The amp has no character outside of its pre-sets.

On the other hand if you are tech savvy this is a very good amp. I could see using it in the recording studio where you have time to search through its wide catalogue of sounds and find exactly what you need. I change my sound constantly through my sets and thus the stomp box set-up with a quality amp is more my style. It is up to each player to decide what their goals are.

JaNicoara owns this item

what a great sounding amp for three hundred bucks what a steal.....the sound is very professional ...takes a little practice tweaking but definatley not rocket science......very fun to find the sound u want that with one hundred channels to choose from......highly reccomended

ericjohnrichards owns this item

I got one of these Mustang III's when they first came out. Got a great deal on it and walked out the door tax and all under $300. I couldn't pass it up. BUT when I went in the store I was intending on buying a different amp. I was kind of talked into the Mustang III. The amp itself is fantastic, it IS a modeling amp. Probably the BEST one out there in my opinion. Tons of power at 100 watts, can pretty much fill any room. Great sound too. The models are very good on this amp, and there are SO many! Everything you can imagine, Fender clean to high gain METAL. And everything in between, it is all there. The amp is rock solid as you can expect from Fender, and being that is it an all in one combo unit very easy to move around. Got a little weight to it but not bad. The controls on the amp are easy to use and the little display screen is easy to see, and use too. If it were a bit bigger it would not be a drawback. The amp itself is fantastic. My cons with the package really didn't have much to do with the amp. Mine came with Ableton software to record. Was supposed to be really simple and easy to use. NOT! If I knew I needed a degree to use this stuff I would have passed. The fact that the salesman told me that this thing was going to be so easy to use for recording on my computer was what sold me on this amp at the store. Had I known what a pain it was going to be... I honestly think I would have passed. I never got to the recording part. And it wasn't that I had an "old outdated" computer system as it was only 3 weeks old. The frustration over getting this thing to work with my computer and the software that it came with led me to stop using it and go back to my old amps. I eventually sold the Mustang III. The amp itself was awesome. Great tone, lots of power, and tons of models. You could download even more through Fender. But I could never get my amp to interface/interact with my computer. Even had a couple of my "computer geek" friends try to solve it... could not be done. I did like the amp. But I got it to record with... once that wasn't going to happen it left me pretty disappointed. I eventually sold the amp, but I have to say that the amp is very good for what it is/does. It is a modeling amp... and it is a very good modeling amp. I think there were a lot of bugs with the software that came with it. I read reviews and I know I wasn't alone in my troubles. If Fender resolved those issues, this should be the cream of the crop for modeling amps.

I have the first version of this amp (not V.2), loved by some, hated by others because of the endless talk about the fizz. Well, i should have been one of the first persons that bought this amp back in 2011, and i must say, in short, i absolutely love this amp. I think that my amp doesn't have fizz, and if it has, i don't notice it and i don't care about it. Differences that don't make difference aren't differences. I could be here all the afternoon talking about this amp but in short: the versatility, the design, the features, the amps and effects emulation quality, the Celestion speaker, the size and lightweight versus his powerful sound (i wasn't really expecting so much volume from this little box). Well, I think I stated my opinion clearly. Ahh! And by the way, the black tweed cover of the V.1's looks nicer ;-D

brianjaguar owns this item

I love this amp. I got the Mustang 3 first generation, not Version 2. You can get any sound you want out of this amp. The effects are highly adjustable especially when using fender fuse. You can go from fender's sparkling cleans to crazy heavy distortion. I used to use a pedal board (distortion overdrive eq chorus delay and reverb) but now i just use the 2 button footswitch it came with and the optional 4 button footswitch. With both footswitches there is almost no need for pedals because of how adjustable and how good the effects on the amp are, and it is pretty easy to use. After a half hour to 45 mins of playing with it i had it completely figured out. As for volume, this could do a club gig no problem for sure. I had it shaking my house and it still sounded awesome and pretty much all the presets that the amp comes with sounds good also.
With everything this amp comes with and can do I'm surprised at how cheap it is.

corpseknot owns this item

Most of my favorite amplifiers are Fenders. Logically, and economically, I don't have enough money to own a bunch of vintage Fenders, so this was the most logical choice. I was curious about the Cyber-Twin, but I was afraid of the complexity of the programming. Then the Mustang amps came along, and I almost dismissed them outright. I mean, they are too cheap to be good, right? Wrong! I played through a friends Mustang 2, and I was totally delighted with the sounds. Then I bought the Mustang 3. I have recorded with it, gigged with it, dropped it, broke the input jack - fixed the input jack........no problems. I love this amp. It won't replace my Super Reverb, because that has the perfect Super Reverb sound. But lets face it, the Super Reverb definitely can't compete as far as versatility. Fender, ya done REALLY good!

tal4jesus owns this item

Bought this amp instead of a multi-effects pedal. It is like having all the various Fender amps in my playroom. Incredibly versatile, with 100 presets plus the ability to modify each one. It will take quite a while to explore all of them. There is software for the computer to interact with the amp, with an interface that looks like the knobs on the actual amps. Again, it will take many hours to explore all of this. People who are familiar with the various Fender amps might have an advantage.

While the amp is not a tube amp, I find it next to impossible to hear any difference. Sound quality is great.

HedFxr owns this item

I needed an amp that would fit many different needs. It needed to be very portable, loud enough to compete with my friends Marshall stack at his house in the music room where we practice and jam, have enough versatility to stand on its own without having to bring a bunch of effects items with me, be able to be played at a medium sized gig, have some software that would allow me to tweak and record. Well I can honestly say this amp meets all those criteria very well. Not only can this amp hold its own in regards to volume against other larger amps, it sounds pretty damn good doing it. It also sounds very good at lower volume levels which is hard to do on a high powered amp like this.

If you are in a position like me and you need a very affordable amp that can do just about everything pretty darn good and many things very well, then you can't go wrong with this Mustang III V.2. Combined with the 4 button switch & the pedal that I bought separately it is truly a do it all amp.

Evilnut owns this item

After 6 months looking for a modeling amp I decided to by the Mustang 3 in 2012. From the first moment I loved everything on this box. I have a weak spot for Fender stuff and this amp is just amazing. I am only an amateur and I feel that this is a bit much for me but man what a sound. Together with my American deluxe strat it can’t go any better.

barnesgizmo owns this item

I am an amateur guitarist, at best, but I find that the longer I play the more attuned my ear has become to sound quality. When I went shopping for a new amp I was showed the Mustang III (first generation, not V.2) and instantly fell in love. This is, by far, the most versatile amp that I could find. And for me, versatility equals value, as I am on a limited budget. With that said, versatility meant very little if the sound quality was poor. Fortunately, that was not the case. The Mustang III is a powerhouse with super-tuneable tone. At 100 watts, it is loud enough for live performances in most venues (stadiums excluded). The effects are excellent. Forget the pedal-board, everything you need is included in the amp, and they all sound great. I have never regretted this purchase. The only thing that I would like to have seen on this amp would be a 1/4" line out. It has a 1/8" earphone jack only.

chrinortay owns this item

First of all, I love this amp and use it live a lot at small gigs. I use it instead of my tube amp because for small gigs it is hell to carry my full tube through the streets of for example Amsterdam. Sounds are great and easy to modify with either Fuse software or manually. Considering the features, the price is more than ok. I have a V.1 and not the V.2, but I hope that a firmware update will give me the 5 extra models and extra effects... :-)
I use it with both 2, 4 and 6 button setup and also an EXP-1 pedal

Now the part where I think Fender should make some improvements so this amp will become a killer.
First of all it is meant to be a gig amp... please include an amp cover with it to protect it against the rain and transport in a (or my) crappy car.
Second, more effect combinations please... What I miss is the possibility to both use a pre amp stompbox simultaniously with a post amp stompbox. This is not possible, but absolutely necessary for a pro use. To overcome this problem I use my amp with a boss GT-8 in 4 cable connect, but personally I think this should be possible off the shelf.

All in all a very good amp when you have some spare effects to combine it with and spend some money on an additional dust cover.

PRO's:
- Price
- Weight
- Sound and volume
- easy to use

CON's:
- No dust amp cover included
- Not possible to use stompbox in pre- and post amp position simultaniously
- Fizz during decay of distorted notes.

Lithium_Grim owns this item

Only a true tube snob type can turn their nose up at this amp. I own a super-sonic 22, blues jr and this amp. I sold my hot rod deville due to it being heavier than I wanted. It sounded great but I don't play anywhere where I need a monster 60 watts. I love the weight of the mustang III. Mine is not the v2 model, mine is first generation. I use almost always the deluxe reverb model on it. I picked up the 4 button footswitch and an amp cover for it. These should include the cover. My mustang is my lightest amp of my three 1x12 combos. The built in tuner is great. I have had it hooked up using the fuse software a couple of times but lets face it, it is more fun playing through it than playing around with it on the computer. It is nice to have the usb to update the firmware and deep edit the settings. The LCD screen and edit options are easy to use too if and when you want to tweak the settings.

I could be a tube snob. I could easily justify selling my mustang since I have a fender tube amp that runs 3 times the cost of the mustang. But it is just so darn flexible. I can dial in just about any tone I want. It is 100 watts and easy to get it to play loud. Also easy to get that tone I like at a low volume too. I also do not have to worry about if I have any backup tubes in case one decides to go out in the middle of a gig.

I like the mustang III because it has the right mix of power, price and the features. The II only has buttons to edit with and not the menu LCD which is much easier to follow with having to refer to the manual.

SwiftPickins owns this item

I play a Roland Strat mostly and have a gr 20 midi pedal to handle keyboard stuff. I also work with a vocal harmonizer, keyboard amp and have many pedals at my feet. I wanted a simple amp with flexibility to play through, plus the ability to plug my acoustic guitar or mandolin in. This amp has so many choices you will have countless hours of experimentation... my only complaint was the sound levels of each patch needs tweaking to level them out a bit... otherwise I love this amp

Barry Wilson owns this item

I'm a 30+ year drummer that's recently started learning to play guitar, and I wanted something that would cover beginner playing to performing live equally well. I LOVE the sound of tube amps, but don't like their price tags and was recommended to check out the Mustang line by a few guitar players that have them.

I went with the Mustang III, as the features it has for the price fit my needs perfectly - 12" speaker, 100 watts of power, great sounding tube amp models, headphone out for silent practice, an Aux in for my metronome/ipod, the fact that the effects are reasonably usable and it's size meant it wouldn't take up a lot of room in my studio were all were all important things for me.

I Added in the 4-button Footswitch (bought separately of course...) and hooked up the FUSE software and those really opened up the control and the flexibility of what can be done with the amp, both settings wise and while playing.

It's also very easy to use too - the short manual gets you get up and running and able to control the finer settings in the amp in a very short amount of time.

As for any negatives, I really only have 2 things:
I wish we had the ability to assign more than one stompbox effect from each grouping - Fuzz and Compressor at the same time would be nice, but the effects loop can always be used to add outboard effects if needed.

I do *not* like the use of the 1/8" jacks for the headphone and Aux In jacks. Even tough most MP3 players use 1/8" outputs, I would like to have had 1/4" jacks instead. Not only are the jacks more durable, but so are the cable connectors - I worry about damaging the headphone connector when trying to connect it to my sound board, as a 1/8" to 1/4" adaptor puts a lot of added stress on the smaller jack.

Kyrrinstoch owns this item